below

adverb

1. in or toward a lower place: Look out below!
2. on, in, or toward a lower level, as a lower deck of a ship: The captain of the ship went below.
3. beneath the surface of the water: Divers were sent below to view the wreck.
4. on earth: the fate of creatures here below.
5. in hell or the infernal regions.
6. at a later point on a page or in a text: See the illustration below.Compare above(def 5).
7. in a lower rank or grade: He was demoted to the class below.
8. under zero on the temperature scale: The temperature in Buffalo was ten below this morning.
9. Theater. downstage.Compare above(def 8).
10. Zoology. on the lower or ventral side.

preposition

11. lower down than: below the knee.
12. lower in rank, degree, amount, rate, etc., than: below cost; below freezing.
13. too low or undignified to be worthy of; beneath: He considered such an action below his notice.
14. Theater. downstage of: There are two chairs below the table.

preposition

1. at or to a position lower than; under
2. less than in quantity or degree
3. south of
4. downstream of
5. unworthy of; beneath

adverb

6. at or to a lower position or place
7. at a later place (in something written)see below
8. archaic beneath heaven; on earth or in hell

adv.

early 14c., biloogh, from be- “by, about” + logh, lou, lowe “low” (see low (adj.)). Apparently a variant of earlier a-lowe (influenced by other adverbs in be-, cf. before), the parallel form to an-high (now on high). Beneath was the usual word; below was very rare in Middle English and gained currency only in 16c. It is frequent in Shakespeare. As a preposition from 1570s. According to Fowler, below is the opposite of above and concerns difference of level and suggests comparison of independent things. Under is the opposite of over and is concerned with superposition and subjection and suggests some interrelation.